The Two Avenues in Life that Deserve Careful Attention

Peaceful mind comes along gradually as a result of our dedicated application to two avenues in life: The Practical and the Spiritual. Usually, there are so many disturbing influences in life that people lose heart and do not pay sufficient attention to the two avenues. However, the interesting thing about it is that once we pay attention to them, matters straighten up and give us the encouragement to be in the driver-seat of our lives. What is needed is loving application to both those avenues. It is to be noted that while the rational mind is the prime instrument in our being intelligent about the practical issues, reliance on intuition is what makes us glide along the spiritual path.

There are mainly five streams along which we can apply ourselves to the practical aspects of life. Those are: health, household, career, attention to others and, the last item, the fun things. This last item would include hobbies, games and sports. Attention to others implies understanding the needs of others (near and dear ones, colleagues, even strangers) and alleviating their unhappiness to the extent possible. The more passionately we apply ourselves to the five items the richer our life would be. We would lead a cheerful life and help others do the same. The spiritual avenue is usually guided by religious beliefs. This can be helpful but there is the danger of becoming emotionally attached to a religious system or personality. That would be counter-productive. In the absence of such identification, one moves over to the philosophic side of religions and embarks on a path of enquiry. Soon he or she understands that the spiritual deepening is not due to any accumulation of satisfying conclusions, or verbal knowledge, and that it is due to non-verbal sensing of what lies beyond the apparent. They also discover what the esoteric path is and move along it, striking their own trail. They may be helped by many, including the gurus and scriptures, but they will never swear allegiance to any system or authority, because they understand that would push them into the trap of conditioned thinking. Thus, they will know the beauty of aloneness and the passivity associated with the inner development. If we pay attention to the matters as above, we will also let our children grow as human beings unspoiled by any conditioning. Their minds would be free of fanaticism and ruthlessness and their lives would be filled with humility, compassion and dignity. Related matters are covered in the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com